Monday, June 22, 2009

Dad got moved back down to the ICU on Friday because they wanted to start him on a new pain/sedative called Propofol. Giving him this drug increases his risk of low blood pressure and the ICU is constantly monitoring that, unlike the 7th floor. When I left Iowa City on Thursday, Dad's oxygen requirements were at 90%. When Mom called in last night he was down to 65%. It's crazy to think that he's only breathing 35% on his own, yet that seems like such a huge leap at this point and time. As far as his kidneys are concerned, the creatinine levels got as low as 1.3, which is nearly back to normal. Yesterday they were at 1.5...so up a little, but that can be due to the newly administered Propofol. Dad no longer gets agitated when he opens his eyes, and hasn't broken a fever in the past 2 days, so those are more steps in the right direction. In speaking with his floor doctor on the 7th floor on Thursday, I asked him what order we should be seeing things getting better, to which he replied, "I don't mean to sound dramatic, but our first step is to keep him alive." That was tough to stomach, but over the past few days he does seem to be improving more drastically then I've seen in the past month. With Father's Day being yesterday, it really made me sit back and fixate on this point...how many people...right now, are taking advantage of the fact that they have a healthy father to spend the day with? If Dad pulls through, I know I'll take full advantage of every minute I spend with him.